JERICHO, West Bank (Reuters) – A 38-year-old Gazan, the only known fatality in Iran’s missile attack against Israel, was buried on Wednesday, witnesses said.
Sameh Khadr Hassan Al-Asali had been staying in a Palestinian security forces compound in the occupied West Bank when he was killed by falling missile debris during Tuesday’s attack, which Israel said was largely thwarted by its air defence systems.
Around 700 workers from Gaza have been staying in Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, since the start of the war in Gaza almost a year ago.
Unlike Israelis, who went into bomb shelters after warning sirens sounded across the country, many Palestinians in the West Bank went out to watch the missiles and observe the explosions as they were intercepted by the Israeli air defence.
Video footage taken from a CCTV camera showed a large metal tube falling out of the sky and landing on a man walking across a street, apparently killing him instantly.
Reuters was able to confirm the location from the road layout, buildings, utility poles and markings on the ground which matched satellite imagery of the area. The date was verified by a timecode.
The missile attack by Iran marked a potentially dangerous new phase in the war, which was triggered by the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct 7 last year and followed by an Israeli invasion of Gaza and which has since spiralled into a wider conflict now threatening to draw in Iran.
The Hamas attack on Oct 7 prompted the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon to fire a barrage of missiles against Israel, and the two sides have been engaged in daily cross-border fire ever since.
Over recent weeks, the conflict has flared seriously with Israel conducting the heaviest air strikes against targets in Lebanon since the last war in 2006, and Hezbollah firing hundreds of rockets and missiles at Israel.
(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
